You've binged or overeaten and you feel the pain.
Refuse to abandon yourself no matter what.
Even if some part of you feels that already has abandoned yourself,
Notice you can't,
Not really.
If you've used food because you were struggling to deal with intense feelings or thoughts or sensations in your body,
Have some compassion for yourself,
Just a drop.
It's okay to notice anger,
Rage,
Disappointment or shame about the eating.
These are feelings that come from spiraling thoughts around fear,
Powerlessness,
A sense of emptiness or disappointment.
You are a student of these states of humanity and that offers a depth of awareness that is amazing.
Notice the thought,
I should not have eaten so much.
I should not have binged.
Is that true?
Could it be possible?
You should have binged and you should have eaten that much?
Something came in to help you cope with difficult experience.
You've been used to using this strategy to help you survive.
I'm glad that you've done that.
You are learning and open to new ways.
If we're learning how to walk,
We get up,
Fall down,
Get up,
Walk further,
Fall down again.
We go back to crawling sometimes.
We pull ourselves up.
We walk a little farther.
There is never a doubt that we will walk.
It's the natural way of it.
Walking will happen.
It's built in to your true nature,
To all of our true natures.
A life of binge free eating,
A life free of overeating will happen.
It already does happen more than you realize.
Every day there are hundreds of minutes where you are not engaged with food in any way whatsoever.
You're not fighting it.
You're not diving into it.
It's not even on your mind.
Now,
All that's required is to relax.
Let time pass.
Wait.
Do nothing.
There's no need to make up for this overeat.
I like to say,
Wait 24 hours.
After 24 hours has passed,
You will feel so much better.
Wait 24 hours.
That's it.
Only one day.
Your outlook will be entirely different.
Your body is already going to work on the food and it's an amazing machine.
What would kindness do right now?
If you tapped into the part of you that is a wise,
Kindhearted grandparent,
Strong and clear,
Imagine that part of you cradling the one who was desperately eating and saying,
You're there.
Everything is okay.
Love is the power.
Be willing to attend with kindness to the little one in you who panicked or touched the emptiness and pulled back.
When you're ready,
When it does not need to be now,
Take a journal out and write about what you were thinking and feeling in the time before it occurred to you to eat.
What were the hours?
What was the day like prior to the eating episode?
What was the sensation of craving like that urge,
Urgency that rose up?
What was your experience there?
When you're ready,
You can write about that and be open to getting another chance to practice.
Getting go of the need to respond to the urge or the craving or the demand to eat.
You have a central solid place within you that is not interested in eating when the mind begins to talk about doing that.
That's why you're here.
It knows it's not necessary to eat.
It's not necessary to do anything when that urge,
Urgency,
Craving arises.
It is possible without immense resistance to simply let an urge live and watch it move without trying to shut it down,
Without trying to do anything about it.
Be willing to be kind.
What would kindness do right now?
